Research is Essential If We Really Want to Close Gender Gaps
On March 12, the London School of Economics will host the international workshop “Closing Gender Gaps: Evidence and Policy Interventions”. The event, organized jointly by the LSE's Women in Social and Public Policy Research Hub, the NYUAD Inequality Cluster, and Bocconi University's AXA Research Lab on Gender Equality, will bring together scholars and public decision-makers with the aim of understanding which policies really work in reducing gender gaps.
The program addresses two key issues. First, labor market dynamics: selection processes, implicit barriers, corporate and institutional rules that influence careers and salaries. On the other hand, family choices and the organization of private life: parental leave, distribution of care work, economic expectations, and their impact on career trajectories. The common thread is methodological rather than political: bringing solid empirical evidence to the center of the debate, that may lead to measurable and verifiable actions.
This is where the AXA Research Lab Bocconi, directed by Paola Profeta and supported by the AXA Research Fund and AXA Italia, gets involved. The lab operates at the intersection of labor economics, institutional analysis, and public policy evaluation, with a clear mission: to transform quantitative research on gender gaps into operational tools for governments and businesses.
Inequalities are not only a matter of social equity, but also affect the allocation of human capital, productivity, and the capacity for innovation of economic systems. At the same time, ongoing technological and organizational transformations raise questions about how to prevent new tools, from automation to artificial intelligence, from crystallizing pre-existing imbalances. Studies by the Gender Lab and scientific collaborations highlight that AI, if not designed with diversity in mind, risks replicating gender stereotypes and biases present in training data and automated decision-making processes.
Gender gaps are not only a matter of social equity, but also have measurable consequences on overall economic performance. Reducing gender gaps can increase productivity, the competitiveness of businesses, and female participation in decision-making, with positive effects on innovation and economic growth.
The London workshop is therefore intended to be a space for work rather than celebration: less rhetoric and more rigorous evaluation, fewer slogans and more measurement of effects. For the AXA Research Lab Bocconi, participation in the initiative confirms its commitment to helping build an international agenda in which scientific research becomes the main tool for closing gender gaps.
